For all those who work in the industry, what is your job, and what is favorite and your least favorite aircraft to work on?

Im a ramp agent and i must say that widebodies are always the easiest to work but when you have to stack in planes my favorite is definately the A320 family. They have nice spacious cargo pits with lots of room to move around and stack.

The 717 has a nice, flat-floored bin that doesn't snag anything. There's a composite material that doesn't have sharp edges and very few screws to stick up. If your knee pads are broken (or you just never wear them), it's quite nice.

As an Eastern flight attendant I absolutely hated working the DC-9-51 because the galleys were incredibly cramped with almost no counter space. Customers had to walk through the galley to get to the aft lavatories, requiring us to take down the set-up table every time. My favorite was always the A300. It was like working two 727s, side by side with lots of space all around. Now at AirTran I still hate the DC-9s because the galleys are so cramped and you can't get to anything without moving somethiing else out of the way. The 717s are much, much better.

My favorite out of all of those to work with, hands down, is the A319. It's a breeze to park it at the jetway, the interior of the aircraft is laid out in a very orderly manner...things can always be found where you expect them to be...easy door opening/closing, etc.

My short stint as a ramp agent involved me working with DC9-30/40/50 and a few 757 aircraft. DC9's were pieces of junk (excessively beat-up cargo bins) but they were amazingly reliable, and the 757's were pretty much nice all around....from the ramp's point of view.

Since Airbus and ERJ aircraft were the most predominant America West aircraft at the CMH hub, those are the ones I worked on most. The A320/A319 bin is definitely nice; hydraulically operated bin doors, pleanty of room to move around and for stacking. The ERJ bins weren't horrible, since you can stand up in them, but the flat floor of the CRJ cargo bin was easier for stacking. I got the chance to work the 757 once, but America West's former-Eastern 75's are so old the moving sections in the hold are inoperative, which makes it somewhat hard to move bags around. The 737 hold is nice since you can jump right out after finishing up, and you can more easily stow late bags, whereas we had to bring back the belt loader for the Airbus aircraft.

B737-200 from the gate agents' point of view.....always had to be on the lookout for the pitot tubes while hooking the jetway to the aircraft. The door swung down about 6 inches also, so you always had to adjust the jetway just right. Overall, a pain. And loud as hell when they are pulling up to the gate.

DC9 of ANY series from a ramp agents' point of view. Extremely cramped bins (I'm about 6'0 so I had to squat over pretty nicely while I was stacking the bags). The bins had a wierd angle to them, which made it tricky to line the bags flat all the way up to the celiing. When the aircraft came in full (as they always did), it was tough clearing space to jump in there and start unloading.
The curvurture of the tail made it tough to climb into the aft bin without smoking your head on the airframe.

As for ramping, it was more down to individual airlines and how well they maintained their cargo holds. Some airlines... everything broken, more tape than original surface, loading mechanisms prone to breaking down, jamming the ULDs and what not.

Also, the cheap bahstids who had B738s with no conveyor should have been told they could expect twice the turnaround times. Those really do suck in a major way.

I was happier the less DC9s and MD80s I saw too. We had them exclusively on charter and they're not built for that. Lying down on your back and passing the bags over you... man! And always full until you had to push bags aside to close the door. With the airline (with different handling company) on the next stand only hauling business pax, three bags or whatever in the hold on a full flight...

Jumping in through the front door of F50s all day long keeps your shins a nice blue colour with a bumpy structure too. The threshold, well, your shin will clip it one time out of three if you are in a hurry I found.

Ever jump out of a cargo hold without looking, only to ram your head into the door which has slid partially shut? That was the big drawback of the SF34, with the GPU connection location coming in a close second. Oh, how nice to wait there, sprayed by water and/or gravel from #1 starting up feathered...

Worst cargo hold? The Jungle Jet (Embraer), dead certain! Under the engine, close to the APU noise (and probably air too, although less notiecably) outlet, full of irregularities, poor carpeting, all kinds of strange corners and all the wrong dimensions! I hear the rest of the aircraft is up to the same high standards maintenance-wise - anyone like to comment on that? :/

As for pointy-noses, anything Saab floats my boat! Who needs a weapon loader? Spending half an hour on a turnarounds? You have to be kidding! FOD walks down the runway? Don't think so! And it's a short one anyway. Something wrong? Pull the right LRU and you're off again. We don't need no stinkin' airbases. A bit of road, a trailer and a fuel bowser!

Did not like those DC-10s and A330s where you had to stuff a few hundred bags of bulk cargo in the aft hold. Bit of a pain we could've done without. CRJs made it hard getting the conveyor belts we used into the cargo door somehow, can't remember why.

Cheers,
Fred

I thought I was doing good trying to avoid those airport hotels... and look at me now.

Im an American Airlines F/A and my alltime favourite was working the 747SP.The plane just had a lot of space for both F/As and passengers plus the F/A staffing was great(15 F/As)..I used to Fly it on JFK-LHR and JFK-BRU in the early 90s and the layovers there sometimes were 48 Hours.Also another thing I liked about it when working galley (apart from the space) was the fact that you would always be in the galley and not work BOTH galley and aisle.

The B777 is also a great plane.The entertainment system with all those channels keeps the passengers entertained for hours.Back galley and mid galley are nice and big but first class galley is a little cramped.

The A300 can look a little overwhelming when you first step on board (as there are just seats for days!!!!) but the service goes by quick and its staffed pretty good at 8 with a full load.I also like the way the A300 is on takeoff. Its got a lot of power like the 777...Never forget taking off in an A300-600R from STT !!!!!

As a UAL ramper, id have to say my favorate plane to work on is the 757. Im kind of short so I can stack with ease in the aft pit. I do not like wide bodies for some reason. I guess dealing with the cans and pallets just agravates me. I also liked the 727 when we still had them.

Cancidas: I do a battery start on a Metro almost every week... It's the funnest thing in the world, running around to the wingtip then in to the engine to remove the plug... Most, as you said have the plug in on the nacell just aft of the prop, but some have them on the bottom of the wing, just inboard of the engine, almost to the fuselage - those are even more fun because not only do you get the prop blast, but also the engine exhaust because you have to walk right behind the engine.